Magpie Caught In The Act.

Most members of the crow family (corvidae) target carrion but will plunder nests only if they stumble over them.
Magpies are an exception to this and will target nests but will also attack smaller birds, kill and eat them.

On Tuesday last, such an incident was witnessed on our school playground by a member of staff who spotted a magpie which had somehow caught a sparrow and was in the act of killing it. He scared the magpie away and picked up the damaged sparrow which seemed doomed but which happily, made a full recovery.

One bird was less fortunate. A local shopowner described to me the dismantling of a blackbird by a magpie on the pavement in front of his shop and also how all the songbird nests in a regular nesting site in the tall trees at the bottom of his garden had seen their eggs and nestlings destroyed by magpies.

Their numbers in our locality are huge - so the damage being done is inestimable.
Come on the RSPB. A cull is overdue!